Case Study: Driving Revenue Growth Through UX Optimization

By Philip Burgess - UX Research Leader

Overview

Nu Skin’s e-commerce platform was experiencing significant drop-off during critical purchase funnel steps—specifically the checkout and sign-up process. Our UX research identified multiple usability issues causing high abandonment rates, resulting in millions in lost potential revenue each year.

By applying a structured UX ResearchOps framework and ROI-focused design interventions, we transformed friction points into optimized user experiences, directly boosting revenue, customer acquisition, and brand loyalty.

The Challenge

• 94% cart abandonment rate among users with items in their shopping cart.

• Only 6% of users who reached the sign-up page completed the process.

• High bounce rates on mobile sign-up and sponsor ID pages (up to 43% abandonment).

• Significant call center costs tied to web usability issues (ADR issues costing $3M/year).

Impact of the Problem:

• $3.8M lost from sign-up page abandonment alone (in one quarter).

• $18B lost annually across e-commerce brands due to cart abandonment (industry benchmark).

Goals

1. Increase sign-up completion rate by addressing usability barriers.

2. Reduce bounce and exit rates on high-traffic transactional pages.

3. Demonstrate monetary ROI from targeted UX improvements.

4. Align UX optimization initiatives with 2022 Nu Skin business priorities without requiring new platforms or features.

Approach & Framework

1. Discovery & Pain Point Identification

• Reviewed top 50 pages using Google Analytics (bounce rates, exit %, time on page).

• Cross-referenced with top 10 call center reasons to pinpoint high-impact friction areas.

• Collaborated with stakeholders to validate problem areas through heuristic reviews and data analysis.

2. Targeted UX Testing & Experiments

• A/B testing (Google Optimize) of call-to-action button colors—result: green CTA increased key objectives by 487%.

• Usability walkthroughs of checkout, sign-up, and sponsor ID flows to identify cognitive load and navigation issues.

3. ROI Modeling

• Calculated potential revenue increases for incremental usability gains:

  • 5% improvement = $78M/year

  • 10% improvement = $156M/year

  • 20% improvement = $312M/year

4. Implementation

• Streamlined sign-up page forms for mobile users.

• Replaced ineffective button styles with high-performing green CTA.

• Reduced steps in sponsor ID flow to minimize drop-off.

• Improved page copy and micro-interactions to guide users smoothly through checkout.

Results

Quick Wins

• Button Color Test: $94K lift in transactions on one PDP in the U.S. market; scaling globally to 50 regions and 100 PDPs = $378M year one, $756M year two.

• Sponsor ID Page Optimization: 5% retention led to $571K annual increase.

Long-Term Gains

• Sign-Up Page Fixes: Projected $3.28M annual increase from retaining just 5% of abandoning users.

• Checkout Flow Streamlining: 45% average conversion lift, adding 63K annual purchasers ($12.6M).

Business Impact

• Direct revenue impact: Hundreds of millions in additional transactions over 2 years.

• Cost savings: Reduced ADR-related call center expenses by up to $3M annually.

• Improved brand loyalty, confidence, and repeat purchase behavior through better first-time experiences.

Key Takeaways

• Small, targeted UX improvements can yield massive ROI when applied to high-traffic, high-intent pages.

• Aligning UX optimization with business KPIs ensures leadership buy-in and strategic impact.

• A structured UX ResearchOps framework—from discovery to measurement—turns usability insights into measurable business value.

Final Thought: This project reinforced the principle that the most impactful UX improvements often don’t require new features or technology—they come from removing friction in the user journey. By treating UX as both a customer advocacy function and a revenue driver, we created results that were impossible to ignore.